The BBC just said that Venezuela is a dictatorship, and the election will be close between left and right. They missed the irony. The incongruity and imbalance of the Chavez demonisation is ridiculous. Sky News did a five minute piece in which the evidence of him being evil and demented was that he called George Bush a devil and declared the age of imperialism over; he did however reduce poverty and improve housing, they added. I am not sure they left their audience with the same certainty as their presenters that he was a bad thing.
There are valid criticisms to be made of Chavez’ attitude towards those who honestly disagreed with him. A dictator he was not. I am not going to detail the legitimate (there is some) criticism, because the airwaves are full of neo-conservatives doing that full time.
Chavez’ overwhelming achievement was to apply succesfully in a developing country the international law doctrine of a state’s inalienable right to its mineral resources, as declared by the UN General Assembly in 1968. One of the fundamental reasons that the developing world is so poor is that states have been unable to take a reasonable share of the economic benefit from exploitation of their mineral resources. The main reason for this is that multinationals have bribed corrupt politicians for the rights at little purchase cost and low taxation and resource share.
I know Ghana best. Newmont, the world’s biggest gold mining company, has revenues of 1.5 billion dollars in Ghana and pays no corporation or revenue tax. Not one penny (or rather pessowa). And causes vast environmental despoilation and social dislocation. That is how the sytem works, throughout the developing world.
The doctrine of alienable right enables states to simply cancel such scandalous deals, and that is exactly what Chavez did in Venezuela’s oil sector. Cancelled them and imposed fairer arrangements. He applied the huge increase revenues to massively succesful poverty alleviation via social programmes, housing and education.
The western states of course do everything to stop developing countries doing this, on behalf of the multinationals who control the politicians. They threaten (and I am an eye-witness) aid cancellation, disinvestment and trade sanctions. They work to make you a political pariah (just watch the media on Chavez today). They secretly sponsor, bankroll and train your opponents. The death of such “dangerous” leaders is a good outcome for them, as in Allende or Lumumba.
Chavez faced them down. There are millions of people in Venezuela whose hard lives are a bit better and have hope for the future because of Chavez. There are billionaires in London and New York who have a few hundred million less each because of Chavez. Nobody can deny the truth of both those statements.
Now which group owns the mainstream media and politicians who are spitting bile against the dead man today?
I wonder what Venezuela’s poor thought of this:- http://www.tradingeconomics.com/venezuela/inflation-cpi
An inevitable result of high public spending and whilst plundering the profits of the state oil company to spend on social projects is all highly commendable it left the company short of funds and having to borrow to keep going. Cut backs in maintenance are thought to have been responsible for the explosion that wrecked Venezuela’s largest oil refinery last August killing 42. Shades of Lord Browne’s legacy at BP.
Like all charismatic leaders Chavez will leave a huge power vacuum at the heart of Venezuelan politics which ordinary mortals will find it hard to fill. Whoever follows him will have some hard decisions to make in the months and years to come.
Chavez was undoubdtedly a demagogue and frankly nasty authoritarian. The Chavists have oppressed (and possibly murdered) indiginous rights activists, running rough shod over indiginous lands in the quest big mining projects (just like any imperialist capitalist).
El Libertario says it best – no mourning or celebration – it is time for social struggles to become autonomous.
That said, I’d rather a dictator (or dictatorial style leader) to be one opposed to the US rather than one in the pocket of the US or other imperialist powers (I suppose China is assuming that role somewhat).
How do you send armoured vehicles to Syria anyway? Fly them in via Hercules to Damascus and then ask the “FSA” to go pick them up?
RIP man of the poor !
Craig, I hope you haven’t accidently banned Habbakuk.
He was just about to explain how he came by his overly detailed familiarity with arcane FCO procedures.
Anyway, while we’re waiting here’s Pepe Escobar:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hl5UD_Ul230
Meanwhile in the rest of the world the Forbes list shows 210 more billionaires in the world than last year each one of them $100 million richer than before. The publicly owned RBS who helped achieve this by investing the Quantitative Easing money on the stock market instead of lending it to us is handing out £600 million in bonuses despite losing £5.2 billion last year.
In April people earning over a million pounds a year will be getting a £40,000 tax cut while those taking in foster children will lose the rent and rate rebates on their rooms.
I think we could do with a Hugo Chavez here in Britain.
“I hope you haven’t accidentally banned Habbakuk”
Freudian Slip…..
On the poisoning issue; Joe Cannon bends backward to avoid appearing ‘conspiratorial’.
Take this with, or without a grain of salt.
http://cannonfire.blogspot.com/
Chavez, like almost every Leader in the history of mankind, had both positive and negative aspects to his leadership. The rush of many of the regulars on here to have him instantly canonised is as dangerous is it is ludicrous.
And as usual, the fact that Craig’s common sense is needed in rein in the conspiracy theorists, speaks volumes about the mindset of those proposing such wild and illogical claims.
————————————
LOL @ Mary – FTJ. 🙄 Or should that be WTF? I would advise you to change your nome de plume back, you now sound like one of those horrible American SuperPACs.
Doesn’t the fact you feel the need to publish this meaningless platitude next to your name indicate a significant level of pomposity?
Much like the fact that you can guarantee that any Nation which has bestowed ‘Democratic’ upon it’s official title, is not in the slightest bit democratic.
CE- For Mom and Apple Pie.
Looks like it’s time for Craig to start that new thread despite CE’s wild and illogical denial.
I thought I would compete with the boring ‘Life is Beautiful’ meme! RyVita is Bella or some such.
CE For Mom and Apple Pie.
Does that mean you are American, or just wish you were? Maybe Alfred/Can Speccy even?
Yes, unsurprisingly and despite Craig’s requests, Ben Fraklin has spoiled us with ZERO actual evidence of any Murder.
Come on now guys, no evidence(yes Ben, that includes listing all SA leaders who have died of cancer), no posting wild unfounded theories. I’m sure David Icke will welcome you with open arms if that’s your thing.
‘It will offer millions of pounds in “non-lethal” equipment, including search and rescue, communications, and disease-prevention materials.
Mr Hague said it was a “necessary, proportionate and lawful” response to “extreme human suffering”.’
Don’t suppose he could spare a few bob in response to extreme human suffering in Britain.
http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2013/03/death-homeless-man-blamed-anti-squatting-laws
Hugo Chavez was definitely sincere and passionate about social justice, but I don’t believe he choose the best road to reach his goal. On the long run, socialism has always been detrimental to the nations it was supposed to help. Also, I don’t understand why Chavez hated America with such intensity. By the way, I noticed that countries whose leaders hate the US are usually countries where atrocities are commited on a regular basis…
@Mary
Ah, I see. However, given the animosity between the two of you I didn’t think you”d be interested in ‘competing’ with Habba and his Ryvita! 😉
Neither Yank nor Wanabee I’m afraid, was just promoting an empty platitude of my own, whilst also throwing the conspirators a red herring.
Has Craig actually banned him by ‘accident’?
craig, 2:34 pm;
only Jon and Tim can un-ban an IP address.
Accidentally banned contributor:
just turn your router off and back on again. It is very probable that you will be allocated a new IP address that has not been banned.
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/139014/michael-shifter/so-long-chavez
Amazing text!
See this important article Poverty and Progress: Comparing the US and Venezuela on this page for what Chavez had achieved.
Interesting that the most belated inquiry into Yasser Arafat’s most suspicious death still has not reported, though his body was exhumed last November. Seems it will report in June.
Seems like an inordinate length of time given what can be discovered at this late date.
Wonder if it will then be postponed for all kinds of extraneous reasons so that the Israelis, Americans, Brits et al. can have a free rein to get rid of the rest of their current enemies.
Still wonder what really happened to Sweden’s statsminister Olof Palme, Dr. David Kelly, Royal Cadet Stephen Hilder, Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh, Pim Fortuyn, Theo van Gogh, Alexander Litvinenko, Gareth Williams, Gudrun Loftus, Steve Rawlings, Owe Barschel, the al-Hillis, Sylvain Mollier, etc., ad nauseam.
Only those brain dead or completely corrupted can simply dismiss such an ever-growing list.
The ‘animosity’, as you call the trolling, and in which you have participated, is/was one way and was not instigated by me. I have just been standing up for myself under intense provocation. End of.
This is off topic. We should be speaking of the late President Chavez. Sky News cannot believe the massive gathering in the streets of Caracas and, at one stage, talked of taking the coffin through the streets as a ‘ploy’ to create mass hysteria. No chance of anyone much turning out for Cameron or Obama or any other of the pocket pols in similar circumstances of course.
President Carter has had the decency to express his condolences.
One of the more unpleasant Americab paleocon outfits carry his words.
http://www.aei-ideas.org/2013/03/jimmy-carter-sends-his-condolences-to-hugo-chavez/
You can see Cheney here on the Board. http://www.aei.org/about/board-of-trustees/
This is quite an interesting story, for a change, in The Guardian:
“In 2004, with the war in Iraq going from bad to worse, the US drafted in a veteran of Central America’s dirty wars to help set up a new force to fight the insurgency. The result: secret detention centres, torture and a spiral into sectarian carnage”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/06/el-salvador-iraq-police-squads-washington
Accidentally banned contributor, if my advice above doesn’t work, you can contact me by e-mail. Click on my name by my avatar to reach a page with my contact details. I could post a comment here on your behalf, or I could pass your details on to Craig.
Craig, IP addresses change for various reasons such as router reboot or interruption of signal on a mobile device. It is possible that the “banned” contributor already has a new IP address, and didn’t even noticed that they were ever blocked.
Herbie,
Many thanks for the ^ link.
An extremely important development indeed.
Certain NeoCons and NuLAbour types from this era will be sweating now for sure.
Also important for strengthening Assange’s sitaution by showing Wikileaks was leaking ctories about genuine and provable war crimes.
The Real News Network has a discussion on Chavez’ death and legacy.
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=9806#.UTdK8lcqj0Y
“No chance of anyone much turning out for Cameron or Obama or any other of the pocket pols in similar circumstances of course.”
Another classic preconceived notion from Mary, but let’s not allow the facts and balanced view to get in the way of a shrill rant.
This is a fallacious assumption, which I would very much doubt in the case of BO.
Clark,
If it is Habbabkuk that’s been accidentally banned i think it imperative we have him/her back.
It’s important to let trolls have a platform whereby they can reveal their nasty habits,tactics and thoughts for all to see.
Shanna Carson, 5:11 pm; the US itself is a country that commits atrocities on a regular basis. Internally, it has executions, including executions of the mentally ill. It has performed and outsourced torture and imprisonment without trial. It has initiated unprovoked war. It regularly performs drone strikes that kill many civilians. It has destabilised many governments and induced many coups. The list goes on and on, far more than I can mention here.
The US desperately needs a dose of socialism. A huge proportion of the US population now live in poverty.
As to why South American leaders might “hate” the US:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_and_state_terrorism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covert_United_States_foreign_regime_change_actions
No danger Jives. Going hard at it on the previous thread(s) amongst the designer shoes. I thought the Captcha was supposed to eliminate spambots.